17 accepted papers
This paper presents the design and characterization of a new series elastic actuator (SEA) for physical human-robot interaction (pHRI) featuring a compact spring mechanism. The spring mechanism consists of ten compression springs, fitted on output rotors and arranged in a curved formation. The compr…
Learning-based controllers are increasingly adopted in lower-extremity powered exoskeletons, yet their advantages over traditional adaptive approaches remain underexplored. We compared two adaptive assist-as-needed (AAN) controllers for gait training with an ankle exoskeleton: a reinforcement learni…
The collaboration between humans and robots is critical in many robotic applications, especially in those requiring physical human-robot interaction (pHRI). Previous research in pHRI has largely focused on robotic manipulators, employing impedance or admittance control to maintain operational safety
Self-selected walking speed is a key outcome for exercise-based rehabilitation programs following lower-extremity trauma. This work introduces a novel reinforcement learning-based assist-as-needed (RL-AAN) controller for ankle exoskeletons, aimed at gait speed training. Built on an actor–critic arch
Load transportation (LT) using quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has drawn increasing interest from the robotics community in recent years. Two main alternative load carrying modalities have been investigated. Namely, the load is either rigidly attached to the body of the quadrotor (LT-RA),
Continuous gait monitoring may aid the early diagnosis of neurological and musculoskeletal conditions and help validate the effectiveness of new treatments. However, consumer-grade activity trackers can only capture summary gait metrics, whereas most of the research-grade devices capable of estimati
Wearable biofeedback systems (WBS) have been proposed to aid physical rehabilitation of individuals with motor impairments. Due to significant inter- and intra-individual differences, the effectiveness of a given biofeedback strategy may vary for different users and across therapeutic sessions, as a
Research in powered prostheses and orthoses has relied on COP measurements to inform a device’s controller about the body’s progression through the gait cycle, and to provide sensory substitution for prosthesis users, thereby helping them maintain balance during locomotion. Obtaining accurate COP me…
Online estimation of 3D ground reaction forces (GRFs) is becoming increasingly important for closed-loop control of lower-extremity robotic exoskeletons. Through in-verse dynamics and optimization models, 3D GRFs can be used to estimate net joint torques and approximate muscle forces. Although instr…
In this paper, we propose an autonomous gait analysis system consisting of a mobile robot and custom-engineered instrumented insoles. The robot is equipped with an on-board RGB-D sensor, the insoles feature inertial sensors and force sensitive resistors. This system is motivated by the need for a ro…
In robot-assisted rehabilitation, assist-as-needed (AAN) controllers have been proposed to promote subjects’ active participation, which is thought to lead to better training outcomes. Most of these AAN controllers require a patient-specific manual tuning of the parameters defining the underlying fo…
Transparency, defined as the ability of a robot to exert nil interaction force on the user, is a key requirement for any wearable robot for assistance, rehabilitation, or functional augmentation. In this study, we propose a new controller to improve the transparency of a powered orthosis. The propos
In this paper, a new adaptive tracking controller with learning ability is proposed for fully-constrained cable-driven parallel robots (CDPRs). For these systems, the necessity of maintaining positive and bounded tensions in all cables while coping with disturbances represents a critical control req…
In this paper, a planar underactuated cable-driven micro-macro robot is presented. The system consists of two-link passive serial manipulator attached to a cable-suspended parallel robot. The system is conceived for applications requiring point-to-point motions inside large workspaces in the presenc
Quantitative analysis of the plantar pressure distribution during dynamic tasks can facilitate diagnosis of foot and ankle dysfunctions and prevent potential injuries by providing detailed information about weight bearing and weight shifting patterns. Traditional laboratory measurements are currentl
Adaptive cable-driven parallel robots can adjust the position of one or more pulley blocks to optimize performance within a given workspace. Because of their augmented kinematic redundancy, adaptive systems have several advantages over their traditional counterparts featuring the same numbers of cab…
Haptic feedback affects not only the quality of training but can also influence the physical design of robotic gait trainers by determining how much force needs to be applied to the user and the nature of the force. This paper presents the design of a variable damping force tunnel and explores the e